Copyright and DMCA

What is published here, and where it comes from

Most of this site is not our own creative work. Business listings come from OpenStreetMap and public records; events come from municipal and organiser calendars and from residents who submit them; photographs are used under licences recorded on credits and licences; news is a headline and a link to somebody else’s article, never the article itself.

Where material is submitted to us by a reader, we do not review it for copyright before it is stored. A person reviews it before it is published, but a review cannot tell you who took a photograph. If we have got it wrong, this page is the fix.

Sending a takedown notice

Send your notice through the contact form, under “Legal or privacy”. To be effective under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it must include all six of the following. A notice missing any of them may not be actionable, and we will tell you which part is missing rather than ignoring you.

1. Your physical or electronic signature, as the copyright owner or someone authorised to act for them.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work you say has been infringed — the photograph, the text, the listing.
3. The URL of the page on this site where the material appears, specific enough that we can find it without guessing.
4. Your contact details: name, address, telephone number and email address.
5. A statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. A statement that the information in your notice is accurate, and — under penalty of perjury — that you are the owner or authorised to act on their behalf.

What we do when a notice arrives

• We acknowledge it, normally within five business days.
• We remove or disable access to the material identified, expeditiously.
• We tell the person who submitted it, if it was submitted rather than ours, and pass on your notice.
• We tell them they may file a counter-notice, and how.

Removing material is not a judgement that you are right and they are wrong. It is what the statute requires while the two of you sort it out.

Answering a notice about your material

If your material was removed and you believe that was a mistake or a misidentification, send a counter-notice through the same form. It must include:

1. Your physical or electronic signature.
2. Identification of what was removed, and where it appeared before it was.
3. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you believe in good faith it was removed as a result of a mistake or misidentification.
4. Your name, address and telephone number.
5. A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court for the district in which you live — or, if you are outside the United States, of a federal court in Palm Beach County, Florida — and that you will accept service from the person who filed the original notice.

If we receive a valid counter-notice, we forward it to whoever complained. If they do not tell us within ten business days that they have gone to court, we may restore the material.

Repeat infringers

We terminate the accounts and refuse further submissions from anyone who repeatedly submits infringing material. This is not discretionary: the safe harbour depends on it.

Designated agent

You can search the Copyright Office’s directory of designated agents at dmca.copyright.gov.

Not a copyright problem?

If a listing is simply wrong, out of date, or should not be here — a business that has closed, an event that was cancelled, your own details you would rather were not published — that is not a DMCA matter and does not need any of the formality above. Use the contact form and say what needs to change. We would rather fix it than receive a notice about it.